Chapter Text
The air blew over the area with a stench of death in it. Which made sense— this had been a sight of massacre. What used to be twelve peaks for a sect were now flattened to ashes. One could still spot signs of the inhabitants that used to live here— charred bones, shattered porcelain, broken swords, pieces of robes that occasionally flew over the air.
Technically speaking, this place was still inhabited. The souls of disciplines that had been unfairly killed and refused to move on resided among the ashes, occasionally creating beasts that had to be dealt with and exorcised.
That's why the Chusui Unit existed. They were among the second lowest ranking of the demon emperor's army. Their sole purpose had been visiting settlements that were ruined by Luo Binghe and exorcising the spirits there.
Currently, the soldiers had camped here for well over two years, staying right outside the rubble and scouting over the area to hunt for such spirits.
The surrounding cities and villages had all been abandoned once Cang Qiong Mountain's ruins became a symbol of bad luck.
Li Yongqi tried to slash a spiritual beast that was made out of charred objects and had taken shape of a pitch black young disciple.
The beast dodged and launched itself in the air, sending qi blasts at the soldier. The human blocked it with his spiritual energy that depleted quickly, forcing him to hide behind a rock.
"Shifu!" The spirit called out. "Have you come back to Bai Zhan for us?"
Li Yongqi froze. These spirits were not supposed to have memories.... Most of them only remembered their grudges.
Or perhaps it actually didn't recognise him?
"Shifu! We missed you!"
Dang it....
The previous Bai Zhan Peak Lord cut his palm and drew an array on the ground.
"Here!" He said, coming out of his hiding spot. "Your Shifu is back!"
The spirit turned towards him. "Shifu!"
It flew towards the human, and Li Yongqi made a run for it, sprinting towards the array. Once the disciple was on top, he activated it with his remaining spiritual energy.
The spirit went up in flames, his screams echoing in the air.
The soldier doubted the soul actually belonged to a kid.... He had died way before Cang Qiong Mountain was destroyed. Perhaps it only remembered certain memories? He didn't exactly know how these things worked....
....
As it were, Liu Qingge was dead as well. He shouldn't dwell on the matter too much.
(~￣▽ ￣)~
-> ?? Years Ago
Liu Qingge could feel his spiritual energy running ramped in his veins. It hurt so much. The Bai Zhan War God was not new to pain, but this felt different. It was like the blood in his body was boiling, his guts were melting and his skin had ants crawling underneath it. If only he can get rid of all of his organs, then the pain will leave him—
"Liu Qingge! You absolute idiot!"
His head snapped towards the voice. Shen Qingqiu.... Shen Qingqiu.... He looked in pain.... Did he need to be relieved from his skin as well? The Peak Lord charged towards his Shixiong, who blocked his sword.
But Liu Qingge was just trying to help!
The cultivator in green said something he couldn't discern, before throwing him off. His back collided against the wall.
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His vision faded. The pain slowly receding.
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"Liu Qingge! I will kill you if you die on me!"
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Someone was sending spiritual energy into his body. It felt soothing.
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"No.... Liu-Shidi.... Please...."
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Someone was crying, their voice echoed through the caves.
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The agony, the touch of skin on his wrist, the stench of blood, the sound of sobs, all of it dissipated into darkness.
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"Li Yongqi!"
Liu Qingge opened his eyes to find himself in a completely different place. He seemed to in someone else's house....
"Don't eat that!"
Someone picked him up, he fought against it, before realising he was significantly smaller than earlier. A baby, almost.
"How many times have I told you not to eat mud?"
He looked up at the woman that was scolding him. She looked familiar, but not in a way Liu Qingge recognised.
.... Mother?
No.... His mom had been a stunning beauty who always had a fierce look on her face. She was nothing like the person holding him, who held a tired and soft gaze mixed with delicate features.
....But she really reminded him of his mom.
(~￣▽ ￣)~
-> Present
Li Yongqi reported his encounter back to his unit captain, excluding the fact that the spirit had called him shifu.
"So the spirit was looking for this teacher of his?"
"Mn."
"The Bai Zhan Peak Lord died way before this spirit should have died...." The captain mumbled to himself, before addressing the person in front of him, "You're dismissed."
Li Yongqi bowed once before he exited the tent.
(~￣▽ ￣)~
-> 20 Years Ago
Liu Qingge— no, Li Yongqi read and reread the same paragraph in a history book he had been given by his mom for his seventh birthday. Usually, he wouldn't have been interested in it, until his eyes caught a name he hadn't heard in some time.
Cang Qiong Mountain.
He had thought.... He was in another world.... Not the same one.... This world was so different.
Sure, most of the basis were the same here as his previous world, but there were many things that were too different.
This place was ruled by a half-demon half-human named Luo Binghe, and cultivation sects were unheard of— His mom had told him they didn't exist when he had said that he wanted to join one.
Turns out, they weren't non-existent, they were extinct. Each and every one of them had been destroyed by Luo Binghe.
....
Now that he really thought of it, wasn't he one of Shen Qingqiu's disciples?
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He really wanted to kill this Luo Binghe with his own two hands, but he didn't have the ability to do that.... Not for now.
Cang Qiong Mountain had been burnt to the ground by one of it's own disciples, every single person in it was killed by the current emperor or became his wife. Such shameless girls—
Empress Liu Mingyan.
Liu Qingge stared at the name with disbelief.
....Surely, it wasn't his Liu Mingyan?
He closed the book before finishing. He didn't want to know anymore.
At that moment, he decided not to associate with his old life anymore. Perhaps, some day— once he grows up and becomes the War God once more, he'll challenge this kid himself and avenge his sect, and demand justice from his sister.
He quickly found out he would never gain the ability to do that.
(~￣▽ ￣)~
-> Present
Li Yongqi looked at the remains of his old home has he went over to the dining tent, his black robes that were highlighted with red fluttered in the wind.
The robes of Luo Binghe's army.
This one didn't have any merits attached to it. They were simple, with the soldier's hair tied up in a ponytail using a ribbon.
Fate was cruel. Liu Qingge had been reincarnated with the same face as his previous life, along with his memories.
And now he had to clean up after his own sect.
Li Yongqi didn't have even a quarter of the spiritual aptitude that Liu Qingge had. Sure, he was still able to polish his skills with the sword and martial abilities to perfection, but without the cultivation to go with it, he had been left to dwell among the weak, hunting low level spirits and needing assistance the second things got a bit too hard.
(~￣▽ ￣)~
-> 10 Years Ago
"Li Yongqi!" One of his Shixiongs scolded him. "Why did you go after that beast?"
"It was easy to kill." The latter replied.
"Look at yourself! You almost died!"
He did, in fact, almost die to a White-Willow Tiger. Something he had hunted plenty of times in his last life.
(~￣▽ ￣)~
-> Present
Li Yongqi sat down at one of the tables with a plate of steam buns that tasted like paper.
"Have you heard?" Gossip from the other soldiers at his table floated in, "We will have a new soldier join us soon."
"Well, getting promoted to this unit isn't exactly the greatest achievement." Another soldier said. "We are still no-name nobodies.
"Not promote," the first one continued. "He was demoted."
"That sucks, then."
"Not just from any unit, from the Royal Unit."
The other soldiers let out dramatic gasps.
"What on Earth could have happened for that?"
"They say he had the same face as Emperor Luo's old Shizun. He lost it when he saw it again, and scarred the man's face before demanding him to be removed from his position." The man sighed. "Such a shame.... I've heard he had organised the invasion on the Golden Phoenix Clan. Such a powerful strategist that had his wings ripped off him...."
Liu Qingge stopped mid bite. "Emperor Luo would be that unreasonable."
Every other person at the table quickly shushed him.
"Careful, Zhanyou!" One of them hissed, "Do you want to be beheaded for speaking bad about the emperor??!!"
Li Yongqi obediently didn't say anything more.
(~￣▽ ￣)~
-> 15 Years Ago
Li Yongqi stared at the corpses that were hanging from poles in the city centre. These people had been beheaded the day before in front of his whole village.
That's what happened to people that went against the emperor.
If anything, from the tales he had heard, Luo Binghe had shown mercy by simply killing them.
He didn't have the ability to go against this emperor. From what his Shifu had told him, he'll never have that ability again. His clenched his fists till he drew blood.
The only way to survive in this world was by listening to the heavenly demon's whims.
He hated it.
He hated what his world had turned into.
He hated everything.
(~￣▽ ￣)~
-> Present
Li Yongqi entered his own tent to find bags he didn't remember putting there. There was another bed placed opposite to his.
"I forgot to mention," his captain entered the tent, and the soldier immediately saluted him. "You'll have a roommate from tomorrow onwards."
....Great.
He had been the only one without a roommate and had enjoyed the peace.
That's about to change.
(~￣▽ ￣)~
Liu Qingge was left speechless when he saw the face in front of him.
The man standing before him had jet black hair which were tied up in a bun, along with emerald eyes that scanned his surroundings. The soldier's skin was pale, and his face had three diagonal lines going across it, ruining a look that was deadly similar to Shen Qingqiu.
No wonder Luo Binghe got angry— this person looked exactly like him.
Almost. The soldier also had pointed ears and blood red lips that had sharp canines peeking from them.
So not only did he look like the man, he was a demon— That was normal, a good amount of the soldiers in Luo Binghe's army were not humans. Liu Qingge had to learn to tolerate them.
Shen Qingqiu was probably rolling in his grave right now.
....If he even got a grave.
....
Li Yongqi didn't know what happened to the man, beyond that he was tortured and executed by Luo Binghe.
"Shi Mourui," The soldier in front of him introduced himself as he extended his arm.
"....Li Yongqi," the latter shook it, before averting his gaze. He could feel his cheeks turn red.
"You look at me with familiarity." The man noticed, "Have we met before?"
Liu Qingge blinked. Did.... Was this.... It was a possibility, right? Maybe the latter recognised him as well.
"Shen Qingqiu?" He blurted out. That turned out to be the wrong thing to say, because the latter's face quickly twisted in disgust.
"Do not associate this one with that man." Shi Mourui hissed. "I do not know how Zhanyou is familiar, but this one is nothing like him."
Right.... Li Yongqi remembered the gossip he heard yesterday.
Yet, the previous Bai Zhan Peak Lord couldn't help but associate the person in front of him with his dead Shixiong. Even the way they stood and looked at the world around them was familiar.
(~￣▽ ￣)~
-> ?? Years ago
Liu Qingge stared at his Shixiong who was battling a demon. The man had joined Cang Qiong Mountain and started proper cultivation at the age of sixteen, yet he had managed to grab the position of head disciple. His cultivation was already damaged when he entered, but he was still capable of so much.
Liu Qingge admired that.
What he didn't admire was how the cultivator in green would look at the world with resentment. As it it had chewed him up and thrown back a broken boy who had to face harsh difficulties.
He didn't know much about Shen Qingqiu's background, but the man's aloof attitude and formal speech always reminded him of the nobles that used to visit his parents when he was young.
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Sparring with Shen Qingqiu had always been an exciting activity, even if the brute wouldn't admit that to him. He won all the time, and the latter would look at him with jealousy and promise to kill him someday.
He didn't think his Shixiong was capable of killing a person.
But what he was capable of, as Liu Qingge had found out once they started taking in disciples, was treating kids with brutality you wouldn't find even on Bai Zhan Peak.
As time passed, he had learnt that Shen Qingqiu wasn't the best person to exist.
But nor was Liu Qingge.
Not when he chose his own survival over avenging his previous sect.
....
One secret he had taken to his grave was that he loved his Shixiong, who, unlike him, wasn't a cut sleeve.
(~￣▽ ￣)~
-> Present
Whatever had happened in his last life was in the past, and he should forget about it. Liu Qingge was dead, and so was Shen Qingqiu.
Li Yongqi kept reminding himself that for a full week after Shi Mourui entered their unit.
Even though they shared a tent, they hadn't gone on a scouting mission together. Not yet, at least.
For the most part, both of them ignored each other's existence.
But from what he had heard from others, this person apparently held resentment against everyone else and would give backhanded comments to them.
No one in the encampment liked Shi Mourui, yet no one blamed him for his attitude.
Liu Qingge wanted to corner the soldier and ask if he remembered his last life— if it existed.
Li Yongqi knew that it was just wishful thinking.